"Star Wars: Galactic Racer," a high-speed racing game set in the "Star Wars" universe.This highly anticipated new title is being developed by “Fuse Games,” a new studio founded by staff who have worked on the “Burnout” and “Need for Speed” series. It was one of the most popular titles at the hands-on booth during the recent Tokyo Game Show.
Amid all this excitement, a preview event was held where attendees could get an early look at the game’s standout feature: the multiplayer mode. I attended this event and actually raced the game myself, so in this article, I’ll share my hands-on report.
I played the “Multiplayer Tour,” which serves as the core of the online multiplayer experience. Similar to the main game, it features a unique structure with a roguelike approach: you upgrade your vehicle after each race, culminating in a final showdown where you give it your all.I felt that this sequence—collecting parts to upgrade your vehicle and then taking on the final showdown—had a sense of excitement somewhat reminiscent of “City Trial” from *Kirby Air Ride* (though “City Trial” is clearly geared more toward party games, so there are many differences compared to this race-focused mode).
The tour consists of six races in total: you upgrade your vehicle over the first five races and compete for the championship in the final race.What’s interesting is that you can place a “bet” before each race begins. Players predict their finishing position—specifying that they’ll finish “within the top X places”—and if they successfully achieve that, they’ll have an easier time obtaining higher-rarity parts and upgrades after the race.
Of course, the higher the position you predict, the more generous the rewards will be if you succeed—but if you fail to meet your prediction, you’ll miss out on the additional rewards from the bet. In this playthrough, I was generally able to consistently meet my bets, so I couldn’t verify just how meager the rewards are when you fail—but I did enjoy the moderate pressure it added to every race.
Just like in the main game, the races in this title are ultra-high-speed events that unfold at a dizzying pace. In the pre-race phase, the player’s top priority should be, above all else, to aim for “achieving the bet.” While I wasn’t able to confirm the exact relationship between the predicted position and the prize money, there’s no doubt that achieving the bet has a major impact on upgrading your vehicle.
Even the slightest driving error can cause your car to be destroyed in an instant, causing you to lose the position you’d been holding in the blink of an eye. Therefore, rather than pushing too hard and crashing, it’s ultimately easier to survive if you aim for a stable position by handling the car with a little margin of safety, especially on curves.Since this is online competition, there were many instances where, if I drove conservatively, my panicked rivals would make mistakes and drop in rank, naturally allowing my own rank to rise.
At the end of a race, you’ll earn rewards—such as upgrades, parts, and prize money—based on the bets you’ve placed. Placing bold bets allows you to obtain stronger parts, and you can also use the prize money you’ve earned to shop at the store and “build” your machine to your liking.
How you manage your limited prize money and which parts you combine to create synergy—this is where the player’s experience and build skills really shine through. The rules test both the strategic thinking required to assemble your ideal machine and the gameplay skills needed to unleash its full potential in the race.
Once you’ve finished building your machine and finally reach the final race, a all-out battle to determine the final standings ensues. In the preliminary races, I built my machine while steadily maintaining an average finish of around 4th place. However, in the final race, the machines built by the top players were so impressive that there were moments when I felt overwhelmed, thinking, “Unless the player in front of me makes a mistake, I’ll never be able to close this performance gap.”
In the final race, the potential of your machine is a direct reflection of how well you’ve utilized the rewards from the previous five races to enhance it. For players with a performance advantage, the surest path to victory seems to be driving steadily and minimizing mistakes rather than forcing aggressive moves. On the other hand, when competing against opponents with similar performance levels, you’ll likely need to make the decision to attack aggressively.
After playing through the entire tour, I finished in 4th place. Since your average finish in previous races and the parts you’ve drawn directly influence your final build, I felt that pulling off a dramatic upset in the final race might often come down to waiting for the top contenders to make a mistake. However, it’s a very interesting system to see how the strategies developed along the way come to fruition in a single race. The tension in each race is extremely high, and I found it to be an ambitious and engrossing multiplayer experience unlike anything I’ve played before.
After playing through the game, your rank increases (though it’s closer to a player level than a traditional ranked match system), and there are plenty of elements to keep you engaged, such as unlocking new characters as you progress.
"Star Wars: Galactic Racer" is now available for PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
